At 09:47 PM 12/14/98 -0500, George Murphy wrote:> Andrew asked.........>> c) if neutrinos have mass would that open back up the possibility of a>> eternally oscillating universe ( no beginning) or do those two ideas have>> nothing to do with each other.>> A neutrino rest mass _might_ make cosmic expansion evenmtually stop &
reverse, >leading to a "big crunch". But to get from there to an oscillating
universe is harder.>It would require first some process to cause the universe to "bounce" at
some minimum >size. Then you would have to contend with the effect which Tolman
discovered in the >30s, that such a bouncing universe will actually _grow_ in size on each
bounce. It is >conceivable that this could be avoided if the parameters characterizing
the universe >were appropriately reset in each bounce but there is no good reason to
think that this >should happen.>
Hi George,
Thanks for the explanation. Just out of curiosity, do you think most
physicists are as sure of a beginining some say or is it very debated
still? Do you think
an oscillating universe is a theological problem?
Andrew>